Post originally by Clay at 2004-02-12 16:05:47
Converted from Phorums BB System

I got my copy of HARP today and, while I haven't finished it, I was struck by the Drunkard's Rule when I read it. We used to play RM way-back-when and we always had a 10-key adding machine on the table to speed up combat, and we're no math dummies (all of my old RM buddies are engineers, software engineers, lawyers, and doctors now).

So, in a way, I cringed a bit when HARP stuck to the d100 + bonuses - penalties system of RM.

Why not, I wondered, just collapse everything down to the d20. The "granularity" of d100 is really not that great (do you /really/ care if you can get +2% more on a roll, rather than being restricted to 5% boundaries).

Of course, had a d20 been the primary die mechanic, the shouts of "It's ripping off d20!" would have been loud and deep.

If I play HARP, it is likely we'll just implement the Super Drunkard's Rule, and collapse everything down to the d20 scale. This poses a bit of a problem for those places in HARP that exploit the percentile system (high skill ranks, for example), but in the end I'm convinced playing this game on a d20 scale rather than a d100 scale would greatly improve everyone's enjoyment.